Suchergebnisse

"In addition to notions that movements for new states in India (and elsewhere) mainly rely on identity- or development-based rhetoric, the author argues that geography itself also plays an essential role in struggles over space. Specifically, strategic imaginative geographies based on selective presentations of the contested space's characteristics and history form important elements in the processes through which regions are constructed and through which different actors legitimize their conflicting demands. In conjunction with ethno-national resources, such as shared memories of a rich ethno-history or a 'golden age', belief in ethnic election and the belonging to an 'ancestral homeland' create 'ethnoscapes' that foster regional identity while at the same time reproducing the territorial logic of the nation-state in a post-colonial context. The author illustrates these processes by focusing on the district of Darjeeling and its adjoining areas of Terai and Dooars in North West Bengal/ India where the so called 'Gorkhas' are demanding a separate Union state 'Gorkhaland'." (author's abstract)

Anspruch und Wirklichkeit kommunaler Regierungsführung und -praxis klaffen in Nepal weit auseinander. Dies liegt in erster Linie daran, dass es seit Mitte 2002 keine von den Bürger(inne)n gewählte kommunale Körperschaften mehr gibt. Dieses politische Vakuum wird durch besondere Richtlinienvorgaben aus Kathmandu und die Einbeziehung von lokalen Repräsentanten politischer Parteien nur notdürftig kompensiert, da solche Maßnahmen eine echte Bürgerbeteiligung an lokalen Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozessen nicht ersetzen können.